Dramatic Herrmann
A million thanks to Ball Don’t Lie reader Nick.
Comments (3)30 Teams / 30 Hours: Hops & Barley
You know, one can never have too many NBA season previews. (That’s a lie.) Which is why we present a new series to add to the list: The Basketball Jones’ 30 Teams in 30 Hours NBA Season Preview. Yup. It is what it is…
9:00p / Detroit Pistons: Pistons’ ball of years past has always reminded me of a cheap “premium” lager. It sure as hell doesn’t taste/look great, but fuck it, it gets the job done. With that said, they should be more Stella, less Laker this season. Is Billups still underrated? I can never tell. Random prediction: Rasheed Wallace will shoot an underhanded free-throw during some 30-point blowout in March. I love how Amir Johnson is already on his way to becoming the next Agent Zero. When is this team going to be infected by the injury bug? I mean, it’s inevitable, no? Why are we so quick to shower Deng with soon-to-be superstar status, when Tayshaun and his kick-ass new beard are right in front of us?
Skeets says: 2nd in the Central, 3rd seed
Tas says: 2nd in the Central, 2nd seed
(Hey, Ginger Balls: Don’t forget to check out today’s NBA season predictions podcast.)
Comments (4)Quickies Slightly Less Quick Than Regular Quickies
- Watching the Detroit/Toronto game on Saturday night, you got the feel that two of the stronger Eastern Conference teams were going at it, and the Pistons knew it. Detroit knows how to turn it on for big games and the play of the Raps recently made this match-up a pretty big deal for the Motowners. They wanted this game; they weren’t ‘bout to let these new kids on the block get a win in their barn. All you have to do is look at the way Rasheed Wallace stepped up. ‘Sheed balls whenever the hell he wants and he showed up big time for this one. He displayed why he is arguably the best defensive power forward in the game as his pestering of Chris Bosh had a lot to do with the un-Bosh like performance. As for the Raptors, they played admirably and hung on right to the end, which was especially impressive because it was the 2nd half of a back-to-back. To be playing this well with so many new parts and young players 50 games in to their 1st season together leaves a lot to the imagination of Raps fans.
- There was a former Raptor who got lots of camera time last night – an event very unfamiliar to him. Rafael Araujo, also known as The Cock of Bab-Rob, was ejected for fouling Marvin Williams kinda sorta hard in the Hawks-Jazz tilt. Araujo’s arm made contact with Marvin’s face but it was incidental and it shouldn’t have got the big man bounced. It’s not interesting that the Jazz’s 12th player was tossed but what is interesting was the response by the Utah crowd. They gave him a loud ovation that made him blush just a little bit. It was nice to see Hoffa get some love – everyone who has ever been around him has only kind words to share. Jerry Sloan compared his work ethic to Stockton and Malone and he’s even seen the court a little bit lately. Araujo didn’t get a fair shake in Toronto. He was always booed mercilessly because of his association with the Babcockian era.
- As for the Jazz, they can run like a pack of really fast jungle animals (imagine the fastest creature you can think of, cause I can’t think of a single one). Paul Millsap is a freakin’ specimen, Deron Williams has gotten in to some serious game shape, everyone knows how athletic Andrei Kirilenko can be, Mehmet Okur is the prototypical center for the new NBA, Carlos Boozer has great agility to go along with that hulking size, Matt Harpring is a spark plug, and on and on and on. Watching them dismantle the Hawks at breakneck speed was beautiful to watch. The Jazz have always been looked at as a tough, physical team, but they have adapted and added the finesse game as well.
The Official Rasheed Wallace Tech. Count: 4
Sheed picked up his league leading — surprise, surprise — fourth technical foul last night, in a close loss to the undefeated Utah Jazz.
Drawing some Kirilenko contact while he drained a short jumper, Sheed immediately spun around, gestured for a whistle, and got one. Um… the “bad” one.
Yeah, referee Steve Javie — whose “tolerance meter” was set just below “zero” last night — wasted no time in nailing Sheed with a T from the far side of the court.
Needless to say, post-game Sheed was… um… yeah…
“I knew it was going to come down to exactly what it came down to,” Wallace said. “Going down to the fourth, I knew we were going to get [dumped] on. They talk all that [garbage] about making the game better. This is making the game worse. It’s retarded. They ain’t gonna change it, so they’re like, shut up and deal with it.”
Jeesh. Easy, big guy. Try and look at the bright side, would ya? You’re in Utah … at least you didn’t get ejected for “being black”.
Wallace Feels New Rule Targets Him [The Salt Lake Tribune]
(Note: What’s up with the Gallagher picture you ask? Oh, nothing really. Here, I’ll let Kelly Dwyer explain:
“[Gallagher] is what I like to think Rasheed Wallace is laughing at, when he’s giggling across the Delta Center floor. Makes life sooo much easier.”
And you wonder why I say, Dwyer needs his own blog. Hilarious.)
Comments (0)Is There A September Fool’s Day?
And why won’t it accept my write-in candidate?
I’m telling you, Evan Eschmeyer is a solid dude to start a franchise around…
“LeBron or Billups” Poll [RealGM]
Comments (1)“Hey, Marbury, Just Pass It To Will!”
I know you’ve heard a million of them already, but seriously … when’s Isiah going to sign Will Smith to that five-year, $35 million deal?
And better yet, when he does sign, will the Knicks shorten MSG’s basketball court by about 60 feet so Will can dominate?
Fresh Prince Vs. Isiah Thomas [YouTube]
Comments (3)Thank God For Wade…
Watching this Heat-Pistons series is excruciating. No joke. I don’t think I can take it anymore. I mean, I know I picked the Pistons to take this series and all – and whoa, crazy-talk warning here: I’m sticking to it – but apart of me (see: retinas) just wants this pathetic thing they’re calling basketball to hurry the hell up and end.
Yeah, think about it. You take away Wade’s nightly heroics and the odd Shaq strut, and what are we left with? Two boring ass teams, trading boring ass free throws, that’s what. Which, I should add, they can’t even fucking hit!
So, thank God for Dwyane Wade and his new Outkast track. Yeah, dude’s like Wesley “Two Scoops” Berry out there, givin’ nothin’ less than 10,000 percent. (Fuck you, Hawk.)
And as for THAT play last night in the 4th? Wow. Butterflies. I can’t really describe it, but Dime Mag comes pretty damn close:
Basically, try to imagine Reggie Bush doing his patented dive across the goal line, but making a reverse layup while doing it. We can’t even say the shot was Jordan-esque, because we’ve never seen anyone do anything like that.
Hear, hear!
Mr. Highlight [Dime Magazine]
Comments (6)Efficient Blogger
So I was watching the TNT broadcast of the Pistons-Bucks game last night and I was a little perplexed when I saw Rip Hamilton at the free throw line.
This was listed under his name:
Team Role: Efficient Scorer
Umm… (head scratch) … How dumb do these people think we are? If we write in and spell his name correctly do we get the free Pistons colouring book? (I think I can stay inside the lines of Big Ben’s ‘fro this time!)
This is what TNT should have written under some of the Pistons’ names:
Richard Hamilton:
Scary Dude You Slowly Walk Away From
Rasheed Wallace:
Will Bark Like Dog Until He’s T’d Up
Antonio McDyess:
So McNice You’ll Invite Him To Breakfast
Ben Wallace:
Makes Others Wet Themselves By Smiling At Them
Tayshaun Prince:
Scrawny Kid No One Thought Could Play
It’s Time
“It’s time to get live,
It’s time to represent.
Yo, Sunset Park, what time is it?!”
Ben Wallace knows what time it is. He’s getting ready for the playoffs. He was so incensed Friday while playing the Magic that he wouldn’t return to the game when asked to by Coach Flip.
When Big Ben is mad, look out. This is a player that thrives on energy, intensity and emotion. Against Orlando, he was upset with the way his team was playing. The night before, they destroyed the Heat, and they did it again Sunday to Indiana.
He knows what his team is capable of. All these reports that he’s grown tired of playing with the Pistons appear to be quite a stretch.
Ben knows how the Pistons can roll. He is the defensive heartbeat for arguably the best team in the L right now. He is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.
He wants another title and he’s going to be pissed until he gets it.
Comments (5)The End of a Dark-o Era
Darko Milicic has been hiding behind the Wallace brothers for almost three years now. The athletic 20-year-old has finally been given the green light to go ahead and earn some real minutes with the Magic.
Looking at the situation in Orlando, there is a great deal of upside for both Darko and the distant future of this franchise. The team is now almost past the Tracy McGrady-Grant Hill era that grossly failed. By the summer of 2007, the contract of Hill expires and the potential for a spending spree begins.
Milicic finds himself on a roster where he can play his outside game with the hulking Dwight Howard down low. He will also have the luxury of making mistakes on a young squad that will take plenty of time to become a contender. You have to remember Darko still hasn’t got those rookie heebie-jeebies out of his system, so you can’t expect too much right away.
But is Darko a stiff? Could Joe Dumars have been wrong in drafting a kid out of the Serbian ghetto over college stars like ‘Melo, Wade and Bosh? The beauty of this deal is provided by the NBA’s salary cap. Dumars needs room to sign the man he stole off the Magic’s roster in 2000 – Ben Wallace – as well as Chauncey Billups. The cap has indirectly given Orlando hope by forcing the trade of a young talent.
Or maybe they’ll receive the Darko we heard about in Detroit – a 7 foot whiner who will eventually take his ball and cry all the way home to Serbia & Montenegro.
Comments (1)About
The Basketball Jones is a NBA blog and podcast, written and recorded five times a week by J.E. Skeets, Tas Melas and Jason Doyle. Comments, questions and cold hard cash are always welcome and much appreciated. Contact us.
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